# CVE-2024-9481: Out of Bounds write on scan of malformed eml file may crash the application

> A malformed eml file triggers an out-of-bounds write in the antivirus engine, crashing the application on macOS.

- **Severity:** Medium 5.1 (`CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:H/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H`)
- **Exploited in the wild:** Not known
- **Login needed:** Not needed
- **Attackable:** Local or same network only
- **Victim action needed:** Not needed
- **Fix available:** No
- **Published:** 4 Oct 2024
- **Updated:** 7 Oct 2024
- **Also known as:** GHSA-xfxr-3v89-hch2

## What is CVE-2024-9481?

CVE-2024-9481 is a medium-severity memory corruption vulnerability in AVG/Avast Antivirus, published on 4 Oct 2024. It can only be exploited from the same machine or local network, with no action from the victim.

### Official description

An out-of-bounds write in the engine module in AVG/Avast Antivirus signature <24092400 released on 24/Sep/2024 on MacOS allows a malformed eml file to crash the application during file processing.

Weakness: CWE-787 (Out-of-bounds Write)

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2024-9481?

It affects 2 products.


Products: Avast Antivirus, Avg Antivirus.

## How do I fix CVE-2024-9481?

No fix has been published for CVE-2024-9481 yet. Limit exposure of the affected software until one is available.

## Is CVE-2024-9481 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2024-9481 in the wild and no public exploit code.

## Other vulnerabilities in AVG/Avast Antivirus

- [CVE-2025-13032](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2025-13032/): Race condition in (Free/Inernet Security/Ultimate) Antivirus (critical 9.9)
- [CVE-2020-10867](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2020-10867/): Security feature bypass in n/a (critical 9.8)
- [CVE-2017-8307](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2017-8307/): Missing authorization in n/a (critical 9.8)
- [CVE-2025-3500](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2025-3500/): Integer Overflow in Avast Antiviurs 25.1.981.6 on Windows may result in privilege escalation (critical 9.0)
- [CVE-2021-45335](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2021-45335/): Missing authorization in n/a (high 8.8)

## Fix prompt for AI coding agents

```text
Check this codebase for CVE-2024-9481 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2024-9481 is a medium-severity memory corruption vulnerability in AVG/Avast Antivirus, published on 4 Oct 2024. It can only be exploited from the same machine or local network, with no action from the victim.
Exploitation: There is no known exploitation of CVE-2024-9481 in the wild and no public exploit code.

Affected product: AVG/Avast Antivirus. No package-level version data is available, so check the vendor advisory linked from the reference page.

Task:
1. Search the dependency manifests and lockfiles (for example package.json, package-lock.json, requirements.txt, poetry.lock, uv.lock, pom.xml, build.gradle, go.mod, Cargo.lock, Gemfile.lock) and any Dockerfiles for the affected packages, including transitive dependencies.
2. If an affected version is in use, upgrade it to the fixed version for its release line with the project's package manager, so the lockfile is regenerated. Prefer the smallest upgrade that fixes it.
3. If there is no fix, or the upgrade would break the build, do not guess: explain the risk and the safest workaround instead.
4. Run the tests and summarise what changed and why.
5. If nothing in the project is affected, say so and change nothing.

Reference: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2024-9481/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2024-9481/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2024-9481
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2024-9481
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2024-9481

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2024-9481/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.